Heretofore it has been known to use disc brake assemblies on the wheels of aircraft. It is further known that large, heavy commercial aircraft often have several wheel and brake assemblies. Typically, such aircraft include a plurality of wheels on the landing gear struts. Each wheel strut will support one or more wheels along with the associated brake assemblies. The disc brake systems used with such aircraft typically comprise a brake housing having a number of stacked stationary friction discs affixed therein. A plurality of rotating friction discs are affixed to the wheel member by conventional means and are interleaved between the stationary discs of the brake housing. An appropriate conventional hydraulic brake application system is used to selectively bring the friction discs into frictional engagement.
The inboard and outboard brake housings on each strut may be interconnected to one another by way of retaining cables which are tied to lugs on the exterior of the brake housings. The retaining cables typically include approximately 1" of slack and serve merely to prevent accidental removal of the brake housing from the wheel strut. Of course, other methods of preventing accidental removal of the brake housings may be employed.
During braking a large quantity of torque is transferred to the brake housing by way of the stationary discs. This torque is often transferred to the wheel strut by way of torque take-out pins which protrude from the landing gear strut to engage mating sockets in the brake housing. The pins and sockets also serve as a means of registration for properly aligning the brake assembly with the strut.
A problem associated with such configurations has been the vibration and noise created during braking due to the relatively large amount of clearance between the torque take-out pins and the housing sockets. This clearance permits movement between the pin and socket resulting in a low frequency noise on the order of 120 Hz. Previous attempts to dampen this unwanted vibration and noise have not proven successful.
Accordingly, it is most desirable to obtain a device which may effectively reduce the low frequency noise and vibration generated at the torque take-out pins during aircraft braking.